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Tomorrow night, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will give the keynote address at CES, at which time most people believe he will announce the Beta 1 release of Windows 7. Already, reports are starting to come in from bloggers who have had a look at the beta. So how does it compare to XP, or Vista for that matter? For the record, I still run Vista and have no complaints about it, despite its widespread unpopularity. I have not had an opportunity yet to run the Windows 7 beta, but let's take a look at what others are saying.

Ed Bott's Microsoft Report lists "five things Steve Ballmer won't tell you about Windows 7", starting with "some of you are going to hate our new OS, no matter what we do." I've said this before myself, no matter what Windows 7 looks like or how efficient it may be, there will always be the inevitable anti-Microsoft commentary throughout the blogosphere, on the part of those who disparage anything Microsoft just as a type of sport.

ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes offers a straightforward comparison between the Windows 7 beta, Vista, and XP, tested on two different machines. Bottom line, between Vista and XP, Vista scores better than XP when tested on a higher-powered machine, but Vista and XP are about the same on a lower-powered machine. However, Windows 7 scores far better than both XP and Vista, on either machine, in almost every category. Is Windows 7 worth a look? Definitely.